It's tough to keep track of where
money goes in a big organization like a hospital. That's
how a group of men at the upper echelons of a New Brunswick
health authority were able to run their institution
like a racket, swindling doctors and the community alike
for years, and pocketing nearly a million dollars —
including over $300,000 earmarked for new doctors —
before getting caught.
After a long, complicated fraud
trial over the running of the Miramichi Regional Health
Authority, a total of 40 guilty verdicts came down on
four men. They were sentenced on March 31. The harshest
sentences were reserved for former provincial court
judge and ex-chairman of the hospital board of directors
Drew Stymiest — he got five years and will be forced
to repay $219,000 — and former hospital CEO John
Tucker — who will serve four-and-a-half years in
prison and was ordered to repay $609,000 he freebooted
from the community.
HOW
COULD IT BE?
Perhaps best known as baseball legend Ted Williams'
favourite salmon fishing spot, the sleepy Miramichi
Valley is where you'd least expect to find a hospital
being run like a banana republic. What's more, the chief
perpetrators, then-Judge Stymiest and Mr Tucker, were
widely regarded as pillars of their community. But much
like Enron, the executives cooked the books, fabricated
expenses and used shell companies in order to line their
own pockets.
The roots of the corruption in
the health authority remain murky. But much of the credit
for discovering the fraud goes to the late Dan Allen,
a hospital board member who had been police chief of
Chatham, a town on the Miramichi River, for years before
retiring. As far back as 1998 Mr Allen smelled something
fishy and began investigating. Initially, his only ally
on the board was Sister Helen Burns. Despite hostility
from fellow board members, the cop and the nun took
their concerns to the Minister of Health, which ultimately
led to this nearly million-dollar embezzlement scheme
being discovered.
Gail Savoy of the Miramichi
Leader was initially the only reporter covering
this complicated story. "[Mr Allen and Sr Burns] kept
raising questions at board meetings and were more-or-less
told to sit down and shut up and mind your own business,
there's nothing wrong," she says. "But these board members
just kept pushing and pushing, Mr Allen in particular.
He just knew something wasn't right. He knew how to
search public records and look into things that ordinary
members of the general public wouldn't understand."
Another board member, Peggy Doyle,
testified that as Mr Allen started digging up dirt Judge
Stymiest publicly blasted him, calling him "a liar and
a sneak."
SCAPEGOATING
DOCTORS
When the case went to trial, then-CEO John Tucker tried
to blame the missing money on cash signing bonuses for
newly-recruited doctors. "Stealing from physicians is
the biggest part of the charges against Mr Tucker,"
explains Ms Savoy. "He tried to say that 22 doctors
had received the cash bonuses totalling $319,000 but
none of it was accounted for."
Mr Tucker's claims (quickly proven
false) enraged Miramichi doctors. "I heard all the doctor
testimony — a lot of them were very angry at the
thought that it could be suggested that they were tax
evaders," says Ms Savoy. "If these doctors got these
cash signing bonuses and didn't declare it as income
— they were essentially being accused of being
tax evaders."
NEVER
AGAIN
The Miramichi Regional Health Authority is still pretty
tight-lipped about the fraud trial. Spokeswoman Sonya
Green-Haché wouldn't be drawn on the specifics
of the case but stressed that changes have been made.
When pressed to answer whether any of these reforms
were specifically designed to prevent anyone from plundering
future physician bonuses she said, "Yes. Financial controls
are in place that would address that."
Mr Stymiest was the only judge
in New Brunswick ever to be convicted of a crime, and
only the fourth in Canadian history. After the verdict
was read New Brunswick Justice Minister and Attorney
General Brad Green told the press, "[T]his case demonstrates
the fairness and impartiality of New Brunswick's judicial
system, and shows once again that every individual is
equal before and under the law."
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